Shilpa is an example of how a woman’s grit and determination at succeeding in her career can change things for her – for the better. She is someone who worked her way up from the middle management to becoming the company’s CEO solely because of her efforts and hard work – it is a feat that most women executives in Indian automotive and transport industries can only dream of.
Born into a Gujarati business family in 1973, this commerce graduate was always a tomboy – which was only natural growing up with two brothers. Ms. Shilpa toughened up as a person with her father’s encouragement to forge ahead into unknown territories even if she felt low on confidence. She learnt to look at her fears in the eye. With both her parents gone, she receives unconditional support from her brothers and her husband.
“I have always dreamt of owning my own business. Even after I was married, I wanted to remain financially independent and my husband understood it. When I joined this company 16 years ago, I found a mentor in the owner who saw my ability and encouraged me always,” she shares.
As a peoples’ person, Ms. Shilpa follows her mother’s precious lesson – ‘Humanity is your religion’ – to perfection which has helped her overcome many a tough situation in her career – especially when she works with the high-flyers of corporate houses and airline clients. She finds it challenging yet thrilling to smoothen all those ruffled feathers and bruised egos.
She says: “I have developed good rapport with the drivers we place with our corporate clients and for coaches on airport tarmac. But our biggest challenge is handling the flight crew and the pilots. All have different attitudes and we have to be extremely sensitive in handling them while picking up and dropping them. Since this was new business to our company, it took me 3-4 months to perfect it. Each night, the airlines would send us the roster and I would dig out relevant information to us and prepare the drivers schedule. During this time, I learnt how to handle egos and small yet big issues that could crop up any moment. It was flabbergasting initially to see some pilots reporting to their offices that they would be late because the car had not arrived to pick them up. They would say this even as they were seated in it.”
In January 2019 Ms. Shilpa handled a high-risk project and came out a winner: “Gujarat Tourism wanted us and another vendor to provide them with 200 vehicles together but no car was supposed to be more than three years old. The other vendor did not want to split business with us, so they left. We agreed to fulfill the total requirement but we had barely five days in hand. Till two days up to the event, I did not receive any confirmation from the various cab owners I was talking to, as it was festival time. Luckily my robust network in the industry worked and soon the cars started coming in from Gujarat and some came all the way from Rajasthan too. We prepared a fool-proof schedule and the event went off without a single late reporting and breakdown. We proved to ourselves that we did well as a team and the client too appreciated us to the sky.”
It is only fair that Ms. Shilpa received the ‘Leadership in Bus Transport 2018’ Award as a woman achiever at Abhi Bus Awards. She takes strength from her mentor’s words – ‘to think for the client by putting herself in their shoes’ – because what holds true is – do unto others what you want done unto you!